RESEARCH METHODS

8-10%

WE WILL COVER
Experimental, Correlational, and Clinical Research Statistics  Descriptive  Inferential Ethics in Research

STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
Differentiate types of research with regard to purpose, strengths, and weaknesses Describe how research design drives the reasonable conclusions that can be drawn Identify independent, dependent, confounding, and control variables in experimental designs Distinguish between random assignment of participants to conditions in experiments and random selection of participants, primarily in correlational studies and surveys

STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
Predict the validity of behavioral explanations based on the quality of research Distinguish the purposes of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics

Apply basic descriptive statistical concepts, including interpreting and constructing graphs and calculating simple descriptive statistics
Discuss the value of reliance on operational definitions and measurement in behavioral research

STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
Identify how ethical issues inform and constrain research practices Describe how ethical and legal guidelines protect research participants and promote sound ethical practice

2 PHENOMENA IN RESEARCH THAT ILLUSTRATE WHY WE CANNOT RELY SOLELY ON INTUITION AND COMMON SENSE
Hindsight bias Judgmental overconfidence

HINDSIGHT BIAS
The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it  “I knew it all along” Finding that something has happened makes it seem inevitable

HINDSIGHT BIAS
Just asking people how and why they felt or acted as they did can sometimes be misleading- NOT because common sense is usually wrong, but because common sense more easily describes what HAS happened that what WILL happen

TRUE OR FALSE?
If you want to teach a habit that persists, reward the desired behavior every time, not just intermittently.

FALSE

TRUE OR FALSE?
Patients whose brains are surgically split down the middle survive and function much as they did before the surgery.

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE?
Traumatic experiences, such as sexual abuse or surviving the Holocaust, are typically “repressed” from memory.

FALSE

TRUE OR FALSE?
Most abused children do NOT become abusive adults.

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE?
Adopted siblings usually do not develop similar personalities, even though they are reared by the same parents.

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE?
The brain remains active during sleep.

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE?
Most infants recognize their own reflection in a mirror by the end of their first year.

FALSE

TRUE OR FALSE?
Fear of harmless objects, such as flowers, are just as easy to acquire as fears of potentially dangerous objects, such as snakes.

FALSE

TRUE OR FALSE?
Most of us use only about 10% of our brains.

FALSE

TRUE OR FALSE?
Lie detection tests often lie.

TRUE

PREDICTION TIME
Predict what grade you will get on your next quiz or test.  Rate on a scale 1-10, how confident you are about your prediction.

WHAT KIND OF SCIENTIST WOULD ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
What parts of our brain do we use to feel happy? How do we see color? What happens in the brain when we dream?

In what ways does background noise affect our ability to pay attention?

WHAT KIND OF SCIENTIST WOULD ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
Psychologists!!!!

OVERCONFIDENCE
We tend to be overconfident and think we know more than we do Consider these three anagrams people were asked to unscramble:  WREAT = WATER  ETRYN = ENTRY  GRABE = BARGE How many seconds do you think it would have taken you to unscramble them?

OVERCONFIDENCE
Knowing the answer, hindsight makes it seem obvious, and people think it would only take about 10 seconds, when in reality, people spend about 3 minutes to solve the problem.

OVERCONFIDENCE
OCHSA

OVERCONFIDENCE
CHAOS

Hindsight bias and overconfidence often lead us to overestimate our intuition. But scientific inquiry can help us sift reality from illusion.

SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE
Putting a scientific attitude into practice requires not only skepticism but also humility- an awareness of our own vulnerability to error and an openness to surprises and new perspectives. Curiosity Skepticism Humility  These 3 attitudes helped make modern science possible

GENERALIZABILITY
Degree the results of a study can be applied to different types of populations

HOW DO PSYCHOLOGIST ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONS?
Scientific Method  Psychological science evaluates competing ideas with careful observation and rigorous analysis.  Attempts to describe and explain human nature  Welcomes hunches and plausible-sounding theories  Then puts it to the test  If data support its prediction- so much the better for the theory  If the predictions fail, the theory will be revised or rejected

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Scientific Method  A self-correcting process for asking questions and observing nature’s answers. Theory  An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events Hypotheses  A testable prediction, often implied by a theory

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
A hypothesis is a statement of relationship between or among variables.  Psychologists generate these statements after researching what other scientists have learned and observing variables in the environment

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Theories are generally highly researched, rigorously tested frameworks that organize multiple studies under one umbrella of ideas.  Theories are tested ideas and not just educated guesses  Theories are NOT the product of guesswork as hypotheses are

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
There are too many facts about behavior to remember them all. By linking facts and bridging them to deeper principles, a theory offers a useful summary. As we connect the observed dots, a coherent picture emerges.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
A good theory produces testable predictions, called hypotheses. By enabling us to test and to reject or revise the theory, such predictions five directions to research.

Hypotheses specify what results would support the theory and what results would disconfirm it.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Theories

Research and observations

Hypotheses

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Hypothesis leads to research which leads to theories which lead to more hypotheses. The scientific process is a creative process because of the feedback loop.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Operational definition  A statement of the procedure (operations) used to define research variables.  Ex: human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures  The most important part of the research study, because it defines what the researcher will be observing and manipulating  Needs to be 1) measurable and 2) manageable

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Operational definitions help psychologists to keep a check on their biases  These carefully worded statements would allow others to replicate the original observations.  If other researches re-create a study with different participants and materials and get similar results, then our confidence in the finding's reliability grows.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS
Happiness A smile Intelligence

Popularity
Good music

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
****Replication is the main goal of all good research*****

CASE STUDY
Among the oldest research methods Examines one individual in depth in hopes of revealing things true of us all Often suggest directions for further study

Show us what can happen

CASE STUDY
Some of the most famous psychological phenomena are based on case study research Psychoanalysis  Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung developed much of their theories on human personality based on case studies Behaviorism  John Watson and Rosalie Rayner conducted an intensive experiment knows as the “Little Albert” study to demonstrate classically conditioned emotions.  Little Albert was trained to fear white, furry objects by associating those objects with a loud noise

CASE STUDY (CON’T)
Neuroscience  Paul Broca had a patient who could only utter one syllable: “Tan” Upon Tan’s death, Broca studied the patient’s brain, hypothesizing that the damaged area was where our ability to speak lies.

SURVEY
Looks at many cases in less depth Use this method when wanting to estimate, from a representative sample of people, the attitudes or reported behaviors of a whole population

SURVEY
Wording Effects  Even subtle changes in the order or wording of questions can have major effects  Phrasing of a question might affect people’s expressed opinions Random Sampling  For an accurate picture of a whole population's attitudes and experiences  Involves choosing at random participants from a larger population  Takes the randomly chosen sample and assigning them, at random, to either the experimental or control group (in experiments)

RANDOM SAMPLE
Typically generates a representative sample Random sample and representative sample are similar and often are referring to the same group of participants in a research study

SURVEY
Point to remember: The best basis for generalizing is from a representative sample of cases. Point to remember: Before accepting survey findings, think critically. Consider the sample.

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
Records behavior in natural environments. Range from watching to unobtrusively videotaping Offers interesting snapshots of everyday life, but it does so without controlling for all the factors that may influence behavior.

DESCRIPTION
Describing behavior is the first step toward predicting it.

CORRELATION
What are positive and negative correlations, and why do they enable prediction but not cause-effect explanation?

CORRELATION
When one trait or behavior is related to another, we say the two correlate. A statistical measure (correlation coefficient) helps us figure how closely two things vary together, and thus how well either one predicts the other.

CORRELATION
Positive correlations are also knows as direct correlations. The variables have a direct relationship between them  As one increases or decreases, so does the other in the same direction Negative correlations are also knows as inverse correlations.  Inverse relationship, as one increases the other decreases

POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE?
The more young children watch TV, the less they read. The more sexual content teens see on TV, the more likely they are to have sex.

The longer children are breast-fed, the greater their later academic achievement.
The more often adolescents eat breakfast, the lower their body mass.

PERFECT POSITIVE CORRELATION (+1.0)
3.5 3 2.5

2
1.5 1 0.5 0 Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4

Column2 Series 2 Column1

PERFECT NEGATIVE CORRELATION (-1.0)
4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0

Series 1 Column2 Column1

Category 1

Category 2

Category 3

Category 4

NO RELATIONSHIP
Y-Values
3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Y-Values

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

CORRELATION
Point to remember: A correlation coefficient, which can range from -1.0 to +1.0, reveals the extend to which two things relate. Correlations help us to predict Point to remember: Correlation indicates the possibility of a cause-effect relationship, but it does not prove causation. Knowing that two events are associated need not tell us anything about causation.

CORRELATION
Correlation does not mean causation. Correlation tells you that certain variables are related but not why they are related

The number represents the strength of a relationship, the sign represents the direction of the correlation.

ILLUSORY CORRELATION
A perceived but nonexistent correlation When we believe there is a relationship between 2 things, we are likely to notice and recall instances that confirm our belief

Often influenced by confirmation bias.  We tend to look for evidence that confirms our beliefs and ignore evidence that disconfirms our beliefs.

ILLUSORY CORRELATION
Point to remember: When we notice random coincidences, we may forget that they are random and instead see them as correlated. Thus, we can easily deceive ourselves by seeing what is not there.  Couples getting pregnant after adopting

EXPERIMENTATION
How do experiments, powered by random assignment, clarify cause and effect?

EXPERIMENTS
Experiments enable a researcher to focus on the possible effects of one or more factors by  Manipulating the factors of interest and  Holding constant (“controlling”) other factors **The only type of study that can determine cause-and-effect

KEY TERMS
Experimental group  The group exposed to the treatment Control group  The group that is not exposed to the treatment Independent variable  The experimental factor that is being manipulated Dependent variable  The outcome factor Confounding variable  A factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT
Assigning participants to experimental or control groups by chance, thus, minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups  Also helps to control for confounding variables  Helps us generalize to a larger population  Controls extraneous influences, which helps us infer cause and effect

TWO MAIN WAYS TO GROUP PARTICIPANTS IN AN EXPERIMENT
Within-subjects design Between-subjects design

WITHIN-SUBJECTS DESIGN
• Involves comparing participants to themselves. Typically the research will give the participant a pre-test. All of the participants will be exposed to the independent variable and the will take a post test. In this design, the participants serves as their own control group.  Less efficient, but more resistant to the effects of individual differences, because participants are compared to themselves

BETWEEN-SUBJECTS DESIGN
Involves comparing one group of participants to another. This is the most common experimental set up. Only one group in this design is exposed to the independent variable.  Can conduct the research in one sitting  However, individual differences are more likely to influence

POINT TO REMEMBER:
Unlike correlational studies, which uncover naturally occurring relationships, an experiment manipulates a factor to determine it’s effect.

PLACEBO EFFECT
A phenomenon in which people believe a treatment will work simply because their care provider tells them it will. In these cases, being treated by a trusted source seemingly derives a health benefit

EXPERIMENT

EXAMPLE

To test the effect of perceived ethnicity on the availability of a rental house, 2 researchers sent identically worded e-mail inquires to 1115 Los Angeles-area landlords. The researches varied the ethnic connotation of the sender’s name and tracked the percentage of positive replies.

RESULTS
Patrick McDougall Said Al-Rahman Tyrell Jackson

Patrick McDougall- 89%
Said Al-Rahman – 66% Tyrell Jackson – 56%

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
In this experiment:  What was the independent variable?  What was the dependent variable?

RECAP:
A variable is anything that can vary Experiments aim to manipulate an independent variable, measure the dependent variable, and control confounding variables. An experiment has at least 2 groups  Experimental group  Control group Random assignment works to equate the groups before any treatment effects

RECAP:
Case studies and naturalistic observations only describe behavior. Correlations can be used to predict future phenomena Experiments determine cause and effect

CORRELATIONAL
 Basic purpose  Detect naturally occurring relationships; assess how well one variable predicts another  How?  Compute statistical associations  What is manipulated?  Nothing  Strengths  Works with large groups of data, may be used in situations where an experiment would not be ethical or possible  Weaknesses  Does not specify cause and effect

EXPERIMENTAL
 Basic purpose  To explore cause and effect  How?  Manipulate one or more factors; use random assignment  What is manipulated?  The independent variable  Strengths  Specifies cause and effect, and variables are controlled  Weaknesses  Sometimes not feasible; results may not generalize to other contexts; not ethical to manipulate certain variables

STATISTICAL REASONING IN EVERYDAY LIFE
In Descriptive, Correlational, and Experimental research, statistics are tools that help us see and interpret what the unaided eye might miss. Doubt big, round, undocumented numbers. Rather than swallowing top-ofthe-head estimates, focus on thinking smarter by applying simple statistical principles to everyday reasonsing

DESCRIBING DATA
**Think smart. When viewing figures in magazines and on television, read the scale labels and note their range**

TYPE OF STATISTICS COMPUTED FOR A SET OF DATA DEPENDS ON WHAT TYPE OF DATA IS COLLECTED
Nominal  Simply identifies categories Ordinal  Identifies the order in which data falls in a set

Interval  Includes data that falls within a number line that has a zero point
Ratio  Includes data that falls in a number line where zerio is just another number on the line

MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY
Must summarize data after it has been collected  Measures of central tendency is a single score that represents a whole set of scores Mode Mean Median

MODE
The most frequently occurring score or scores

MEAN
The average of the scores Most commonly reported Most susceptible to extremes in the data  This is the number that gets pulled up or down depending on how extreme the data points are

MEDIAN
The midpoint (arrange scores from highest to lowest) The 50th percentile (half will be above and half will be below)

CENTRAL TENDENCY
Refers to how the data measure the center of a set of data Mode, median, mean all point to where the middle of the data should be If mode, median, mean are all the same number, the graph of the data will look like a normal curve  If different, the curve will be skewed

SKEWED CURVES
Positive  Occurs when scores pull the mean toward the higher end of the scores  The mean is more “positive” or greater than the rest of the scores Negative  Occurs when scores pull the mean toward the lower end of the scores  The mean is more “negative” or less than the rest of the scores

CREATE YOUR OWN FREQUENCY TABLE AND CHART
Collect heights of your peers Create a table  In one column, put in all the various possible height in inches  In another column, put how many students are at each specific height Create a graph  Plot the points using a bar graph

POINT TO REMEMBER:
Always note which measure of central tendency is reported. Then, if it’s the mean, consider whether a few atypical scores could be distorting it.

MEASURES OF VARIATION
Knowing the value of an appropriate measure of central tendency can tell us a great deal But the single number omits other information. It helps to know something about the amount of variation in the data- how similar or diverse the scores are. Averages derived from scores with low variability are more reliable than averages based on scores with high variability

STANDARD DEVIATION
A more useful standard for measuring how much scores deviate from one another is the standard deviation Uses information from each score

Can tell if scores are packed together or dispersed.

STANDARD DEVIATION
Tells us how different the scores are from each other Less variability is better than greater variability If a group of scores has a smaller standard deviation, then you can draw more stable conclusions from that data set.  If set of scores has a large standard deviation, the conclusions you can draw are less stable

STANDARD DEVIATION
Knowing the Standard Deviation for a set of data can reveal how similar the scores are. The higher the Standard Deviation, the less similar the scores are Standard Deviation = The square root of- Sum of (deviations)2/ number of scores **Unlikely that you will have to calculate this on the AP Exam, but you may be asked to interpret it

STANDARD DEVIATION
Normal curve  68% of the scores fall within one standard deviation on either side of the mean  95% of the scores fall within 2 standard deviations

MAKING INFERENCES
When is an observed difference reliable?  When deciding when it is safe to generalize from a sample, keep 3 principles in mind  Representative samples are better than biased samples  Less-variable observations are more reliable than those that are more variable  More cases are better than few  Averages based on many cases are more reliable (less variable) than averages based on only a few cases

POINT TO REMEMBER:
Don’t be overly impressed by a few anecdotes. Generalizations based on a few unrepresentative cases are unreliable

MAKING INFERENCES
When is a difference significant?  When averages from 2 samples are each reliable measures of their respective populations (as when each is based on many observations that have small variability) then their difference is likely to be reliable as well  When the difference between the sample averages is large, we have even more confidence that the difference between them reflects a read difference in their populations.

LET ME RESTATE THAT
When the sample averages are reliable, and when the difference between them is relatively large, we say the difference has statistical significance. This means that the observed difference is probably not due to chance variation between the samples.

Proof beyond a reasonable doubt means not making much of a finding unless the odds of its occurring by chance are less than 5%

STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Refers to how 2 groups’ means are different.  If you graphed the data from 2 groups and the graphs did not overlap or only overlapped a little, then the difference would be significant.  If the graphs overlapped a lot, then the difference would not be significant

Significance allows you to say how likely the difference in means is due to chance.  Usual goals is to get a significance level of .05, which says that the results are only 5% due to chance

EFFECT SIZE
The measure of the strength of a relationship between variables is becoming the new way for researches to report their results

POINT TO REMEMBER
Statistical significance indicates the likelihood that a result will happen by chance. But this does not say anything about the importance of the result

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY

CAN LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ILLUMINATE EVERYDAY LIFE?
The experiment intends the laboratory environment to be a simplified reality- one that simulates and controls important features of everyday life A lab experiment lets psychologists re-create psychological forces under controlled conditions

Purpose to not to re-create the exact behaviors of everyday life but to test theoretical principles  It is the resulting principles, not the specific findings, that help explain everyday behaviors

IMPORTANT!!!
Controlling for cofounding, or extraneous, variables is the goal of the experimental method A highly-controlled experimental environment is not much like reality, but it does help simplify the complexity of the real world and helps provide a clearer picture of how variables in the real world work together

IMPORTANT!!
Experiments are more likely to be replicated effectively if clear operational definitions are used Operational definitions attempt to clearly define the behaviors that the researchers are looking for

If the operational definitions are clear enough, then others can more easily and accurately replicate the study.

POINT TO REMEMBER
Psychologists concerns lie less with unique behaviors than with discovering general principles that help explain many behaviors.

DOES BEHAVIOR DEPEND ON ONE’S CULTURE AND GENDER?
We are each in certain respects like all others, like some others, and like no other. Studying pole of all races and cultures helps us discern our similarities and our differences, our human kinship and our diversity. Even specific attitudes and behaviors vary by gender or across culture, as they often do, the underlying processes are much the same.

ETHICS IN RESEARCH
Why do psychologists study animals, and is it ethical to experiment on animals?

ETHICS
The animal protection movement protests the use of animals in psychological, biological, and medical research. Researches remind us that the animals used worldwide each year in research are but a fraction of 1% of the billions of animals killed annually for food.  And yearly, for every dog or cat used in an experiment and cared for under humane regulations, 50 are killed in humane animal shelters

ETHICS
Is it right to place the well-being of humans above that of animals? If we give human life priority, the second issue is the priority we give to the well-being of animals in research.

ETHICS
Is it ethical to experiment on people?

ETHICS
People are deceived and stressed only sparingly and when necessary  Wanting to be helpful, the participants might try to confirm the researcher’s predictions

ETHICS
The ideal is for a researcher to be sufficiently informative and considerate so that the participants will leave feeling at least as good about themselves as when they came in.  Teachers provoke much greater anxiety by giving and returning class tests than do researchers in a typical experiment

POINT TO REMEMBER
Confidentiality refers to keeping participants information private Anonymity refers to participating in a study without providing identifying information

VALUE FREE SCIENCE
The methodology of psychology defines it as a science, and using the scientific method to examine “soft” topics (such as values) enhances our understanding of these types of topics. The method is value-free but the conclusions are not

Psychology does have the power to deceive, its purpose it to enlighten Every day, psychologists are exploring ways to enhance learning, creativity, and compassion. Psychology speaks to many of our world’s great problems  War, overpopulation, prejudice, family crises, crime  All of which involve attitudes and behaviors Psychology also speaks to our deepest longings  Nourishment, love happiness

NOTECARD TIME

DEFINE THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT

An experiment in which Milgram wanted to determine whether participants would administer painful shocks to others merely because they were instructed to do so. The outcome raised major ethical questions but implied that ordinary people could easily inflict pain on others if such orders were issued by a respected authority

Researchers perform a variety of statistical tests, called inferential tests, which are used to determine___________________.

Statistical significance. Statistical significance indicated whether findings from an experiment support the hypothesis or are due to chance. The more extreme, or far away from the normal curve of distribution, an outcome is, the more likely it is to be a significant change.

What is the difference between a single-blind and a double blind experiment?

In a single-blind experiment, only the participants do not know whether they are in the experimental group or the control group. In a double-blind experiment, neither the participants nor the experimenter knows whether the participants are in the experimental group or the control group

____________ are the methods of conduct, or standards, for proper and responsible behavior.

Ethics. Psychologists follow a set of ethical principles that govern their research to protect the dignity and welfare of participants, obey all state and federal laws and regulations, and uphold professional standards of research.

When do researchers use naturalistic observation?

Naturalistic observations are useful for observing visible behaviors in a natural setting where the human or animal is unaware of, or not bothered by, the experiment. Jane Goodall used naturalistic observation to gain insight into the behaviors of chimpanzees.

__________ include distribution of data, measures of central tendency, measures of variance, and correlation coefficients.

Descriptive Statitistics. Descriptive statistics include listing and summarizing data in a practical, efficient way, such as through graphs and averages

DEFINE: MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

Mode  Most frequently occurring score Median  Middle score that divides the rank-ordered observation in half Mean  Arithmetic average of all the individual measures

When calculating statistics, the _________ is a better measure of variance than the range because, like the mean, it uses all the data points in its calcuations.

STANDARD DEVIATION
Standard deviation is a measure of variability that describes an average distance of every score from the mean

DEFINE:
Correlation coefficient

A statistic that describes the direction and strength of a relationship between two sets of variables. A + correlation means that as one variable increases, the other increases. A – correlation means that as one variable increases, the other decreases. Zero correlation means that no apparent relationship exists.

What was the ethical issue of concern in the Little Albert experiments?

In the experiment involving conditioning a child to be afraid of rats, behavioral psychologist Watson and Rayner taught a well-adjusted child to be fearful without making any attempts to extinguish his conditioned fears. Psychologists today are unable to repeat the study with a child because of the ethical standards of the APA.

How do inferential statistics describe data differently from descriptive statistics?

Inferential stats  Used to help researchers make generalizations about the sample or predictions of future behavior  Researchers use to support their hypotheses, taking into account probabilities and outcomes due to chance Descriptive stats  Summarize the data

DEFINE:
Hypothesis

A tentative statement about the relationship between 2 or more variables. It may be a prediction about behavior or an educated guess about the relationship between 2 variables that is tested through scientific research

DEFINE:
Experimental group

Participants in an experiment who are exposed to a level of the independent variable (the variable that is altered to get an observable effect).

DEFINE:
Frequency distributions

Arrangement of data that indicates how often a particular score or observation occurs.

The ____________ is the change in a patient’s illness or physical state that results from the patient’s perceptions of the treatment when no actual change should have occurred.

PLACEBO EFFECT
A placebo is a treatment, such as a drug or injection, that resembles medical therapy but has no medical effect on its own

DEFINE:
Control Group

In an experiment, the group of participants who are treated in the same way as the experimental group except that the experimental treatment or independent variable, is not applied.

Researchers use double-blind techniques in their experiments to avoid a ____________.

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
Self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when an experimenter has expectations about the participant’s behavior and then acts in some way, usually unknowingly, that influences the participant’s behavior.

What are the steps to the scientific method?

Formulate a question Make a hypothesis Complete the experiment Analyze the results Make a conclusion Create a theory based on the outcome  If the conclusions contradict the original hypothesis, a new hypothesis is made, and the experiment is run again to test for the newly predicted outcome.

What is a longitudinal study and why it is used in research?

Psychologists study the same group of people at regular intervals over a period of years to determine whether their behavior and feelings have changed and, if so, how. Though time consuming and sometimes expensive, longitudinal studies are an ideal way to examine consistencies and inconsistencies in behavior over time.

When conducting a public survey, what is the advantage of taking a random sample from the population?

Each person has an equal chance of being represented in a random sample. Random sampling is similar to drawing names or numbers out of hat while blindfolded. A researcher is more likely to get unbiased results if the sample participants are randomly chosen.

DEFINE:
Cognitive Psychology

The study how the processing, storing, and retrieving of information influences our behavior. Cognitive psychologists believe that behavior is more than simple responses to a stimulus. Rather it is influenced by a variety of mental processes, including perceptions, memories, and expectations.

DEFINE:
Structuralism

The study of the basic elements of conscious mental experience. Wilhelm Wundt started the first psychology lab to study these “elements” in Germany and is considered the father of modern psychology. One of his students, Titchner, studied structuralism in the United States.

What are the four goals of psychology?

Description  Gather information about the behavior being studied and present what is known Explanation  Explain why people or animals behave as they do

Prediction  Predict what organisms will do, think, or feel in various situations
Influence  Seek to change or adjust behaviors in helpful ways

Abraham Maslow

An early humanist who believed that all people work to satisfy certain needs to be happy. His hierarchy of needs suggested that the most basic needs of food and safety must be met before one can meet higher needs, such as esteem, acceptance, and self-actualization

DEFINE
Gestalt Psychology

A branch of psychology started by German psychologists Max Werheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka that contradicted the early principles of structuralism and behaviorism. They argued that perceptions is more than the sum of its parts and that it involves a whole pattern, or gestalt

How do psychobiologists differ from figures in other areas of psychology?

Psychobiologists study how the brain, the nervous system, hormones, and genetics influence our behavior. They focus on biological factors that influence behavior, such as brain chemical levels and genetic defects.

DEFINE
Descent of Man

A book by Charles Darwin in which he focuses on the origin of the human species. Darwin claims that humans are closest in ancestry to primates, and he looks at the emergence of humans in terms of primate evolution. Darwin presents an interpretation of our species completely free from superstition and spiritualism- a controversial idea in a society based on creationism.

DEFINE
Behaviorism

The branch of psychology that maintains that only observable facts of behavior should be considered. The two leading early behaviorists were B.F. Skinner and John B. Watson.  Watson believed all behavior is a result of conditioning, which occurs because of an environmental stimulus.  Skinner introduced reinforcement, a response to a behavior that increases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.

DEFINE
Sociocultural psychology

The area of psychology that focuses on the influence of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status on behavior

Which psychologist was one of the first to be most interested in early childhood experiences and how those experiences affect present behavior?

SIGMUND FREUD
Freud introduced the idea of free association, in which he allowed patients to simply talk about whatever came to mind without editing or censoring any thoughts, regardless of their connection or lack thereof. He then used these associations to paint a picture of what was going on in the patient’s unconscious.

DEFINE:
William James and functionalism

Functionalism is the study of how mental processes help animals and people adapt to their environments. James, the “father of psychology,” wrote the first psychological text, The Principles of Psychology, in which he focused on the functions or purposes of the conscious mind rather than the structures themselves.